Google Instant

Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type.

The most obvious change is that you get to the right content much faster than before because you don’t have to finish typing your full search term, or even press “search.” Another shift is that seeing results as you type helps you formulate a better search term by providing instant feedback. You can now adapt your search on the fly until the results match exactly what you want. In time, we may wonder how search ever worked in any other way.

Benefits

Faster Searches: By predicting your search and showing results before you finish typing, Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search.

Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.

Instant Results: Start typing and results appear right before your eyes. Until now, you had to type a full search term, hit return, and hope for the right results. Now results appear instantly as you type, helping you see where you’re headed, every step of the way.

Ref : Google Instant

Gmail Priority Inbox

New Feature In Gmail

Automatic sorting

Gmail uses a variety of signals to identify important email, including which messages you open and which you reply to.



Sections keep you organized

Incoming email gets separated into sections: important and unread, starred, and everything else. Don’t like these? Customize them.



Predictions improve over time

Over time, Priority Inbox gets better at predicting what’s important to you. You can help train it using the buttons.

Now share your location with friends on FB

Facebook has introduced a new location-based functionality called 'Facebook Places'. Now Facebook users will be able to add their current location to their status updates via Facebook Places.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook, highlighted the three main uses of Places, "Help you share where you are, help you find where your friends are, and discover new places around you."

You can also add places and can check-in at places. However, Facebook does not show you nearby places, but places it thinks are relevant to you.

Also photo tagging has been incorporated with Places. You can "tag" friends that are with you at a specific location. Thus, everybody doesn't have to check-in on their own. Implementation of tagging seems to be one of the best features of the platform.

The privacy controls for Places comprise of removing check-in and the "Here Now" button is activated only after you check in. You are notified when you are tagged and you can only tag your friends. You can also remove tags or turn off being tagged in Facebook Places. You also have the option to report a place on the iPhone if it's inaccurate or don't want it on the system.

Another interesting feature of Places is "Is this your business?" It allows owners to claim a business page. So, something is there for the business owners as well.

Facebook has kept developers in mind as well while creating Places. There's a Read API for reading check-ins and learning more about check-in pages. There's a Search and Write API for making check-ins and searching through them.

Ref: Silicon India

TCS to introduce cloud computing for SMBs

As an attempt to make the information technology services affordable for the SMBs in the country, India's leading IT company TCS is set to launch a new project, a cloud offering. The offering is expected to launch by September, writes Achalla Venugopal from WATBlog.com.

This cloud service aims to lower the cost of ownership by 35-40 percent. The traditional licensing model will be replaced by a monthly subscription model. The IT stack includes hardware, networking and software. New customers will be locked in for three years. TCS plans to focus on the domestic market with this offering first and then later expand to overseas markets too.

Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand. Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption, and delivery model for IT services based on the Internet, and it typically involves over-the-Internet provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources.

The service is expected to be a major growth engine for TCS. It can revolutionize the way Indian SMBs do their businesses providing them the same IT infrastructure which they could otherwise not afford. This offering which has yet not been branded is also been talked about as the last big-ticket project from Ratan Tata.

Bangalore IT firms logs out due to nationwide shutdown

Hundreds of IT firms, including Indian bellwethers Infosys Technologies and Wipro will remain closed Monday due to the nationwide shutdown against the hike in fuel prices.

"As a precaution, we have given Monday off to our employees working in the Bangalore campus. They will compensate by working on Saturday (July 10)," Infosys Chief Executive Krish Gopalakrishnan told IANS.

The global software major, however, made arrangements for employees working on essential projects and business process outsourcing (BPO) services to work during the day, when the shutdown will be observed from dawn to dusk.

"We have made arrangement for those software engineers handling key projects for overnight stay and transport to essential staff on day shift," Gopalakrishnan said.

The $4.8-billion Infosys has its largest software development park in the electronics city, about 30 km from here, where about 16,000 employees work in its sprawling campus.

Similarly, Wipro, which has two software development parks in the electronics city and on the city's outskirts, declared a holiday, directing its employees to report for duty July 10 in lieu of Monday.

"We have declared a holiday for our employees July 5 in view of the nationwide shutdown. They have been asked to work July 10 though it's a weekend," Wipro Executive Vice-President Suresh Senapaty said.

The country's largest IT bellwether - Tata Consulting Services (TCS) was yet to decide whether to give off or not to its employees working in the Bangalore software development centre at Whitefield, about 20 km from the city.

"We will let you know later. There is no decision yet. In case we decide to declare holiday, the employees will be duly intimated by e-mail and sms," a company official said.

Due to uncertainty of public transport by the state-run Bangalore Metropolitan Corporation (BMTC), hundreds of small and medium enterprises in IT and biotech sectors have extended the weekend holiday to their employees up to Monday.

"With auto-rickshaw and taxi associations deciding to not to ply in support of the shutdown, we have asked our employees to stay back in the absence of official information on public transport being available," Deepk Chandra of a start-up IT firm in the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) said.

As a precautionary measure, several multinational firms have also decided to give an off Monday and ask their employees to compensate by working on a Saturday.

Source : SiliconIndia